From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Jan 7: Within four days of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s fervent plea to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release additional funds for undertaking relief measures in flood-hit districts of the State, the Centre on Monday approved the release of additional Rs 669.85 crore to the State.

It may be recalled that the Centre had released Rs 1200 crore to the State earlier.

The High Level Committee (HLC), chaired by the Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah, met in New Delhi today to consider additional central assistance to seven states, which were affected by floods/landslides/cloudburst during south west monsoon 2019.

The Amit Shah-led panel approved additional central assistance of Rs. 5908.56 crore to seven States from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) - Rs. 616.63 crore to Assam, Rs. 284.93 crore to Himachal Pradesh, Rs. 1869.85 crore to Karnataka, Rs. 1749.73 crore to Madhya Pradesh, Rs. 956.93 crore to Maharashtra, Rs. 63.32 to Tripura and Rs 367.17 crore to Uttar Pradesh for floods/landslides/cloudburst during south west monsoon 2019.

Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, was present in the meeting, along with senior officers of the Ministries of Home Affairs, Finance, Agriculture and NITI Aayog.

Earlier, the Central Government has released an interim financial assistance of Rs. 3,200 crore to four States Rs 1200 crore to Karnataka, Rs 1000 crore to Madhya Pradesh, Rs 600 crore to Maharashtra and Rs 400 crore to Bihar. In addition, during 2019-20, till date, Centre Government has released Rs 8068.33 crore to 27 States as Central share from State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).

The Modi regime has been providing full support to the State Governments by providing timely logistics and financial resources to supplement efforts of the State Governments to deal with the situation effectively in the wake of natural calamities.